In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 25th and October 2nd that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentaries for LOVE AND OTHER CONSOLATION PRIZES by Jamie Ford,
LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng, and GENUINE FRAUD by E. Lockhart.
Also, we encourage you to enter our Word of Mouth and Sounding Off on Audio contests for an opportunity to win some fabulous hardcovers and audiobooks. And please be sure to vote in our latest poll, which asks: Does reading news and articles online and being active on social media take time away from your book reading?
Finally, we are happy to share that Teenreads.com is celebrating its 20th anniversary! All the details are here, including our biggest giveaway ever and a piece from Carol on how the site got started --- and what has changed along the way. Thanks to Sean Doorly, our first employee, we even have a look at what the site looked like when it was in its early days. And we have comments from 15 YA authors who share what Teenreads meant to them and their work.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News: Bookreporter.com Bets On LOVE AND OTHER CONSOLATION PRIZES,
LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE and GENUINE FRAUD
LOVE AND OTHER CONSOLATION PRIZES by Jamie Ford (Historical Fiction)
Those who loved HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET by Jamie Ford (a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection) are going to be happy to read his new book, LOVE AND OTHER CONSOLATION PRIZES. It’s a beautifully told story, framed against the backdrop of two Seattle World’s Fairs --- the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909 and the Century 21 Exposition in 1962. In the course of Jamie’s research for a new story to tell, he learned that there was a child named Ernest who was raffled off by the Washington Children’s Home Society in 1909. From there, he knew that a fictionalized story of Ernest was the one he wanted to write.
- Click here to read more of Carol's commentary.
- Click here to read a review.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our interview with Jamie Ford.
LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng (Fiction)
Celeste Ng is someone who I have wanted to read for a while. Her debut novel, EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU, has been on my shelf since it was published, and I am kicking myself that I did not read it sooner; colleagues and readers love her. Thus, when LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE came across my desk, I was eager not to let this one pass me by. It’s set in the planned community of Shaker Heights, Ohio, a place Celeste knows well, as she grew up there.
- Click here to read more of Carol's commentary.
- Click here to read a review.
GENUINE FRAUD by E. Lockhart (Psychological Thriller)
Our readers may remember E. Lockhart from her last book, WE WERE LIARS, which was a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. She’s now back with GENUINE FRAUD, a brisk, sharp thriller written backwards, so you are peeling back the layers of the story as you read. Again and again, it’s not what you thought at the start. Imogen is an heiress who reinvents herself as the story unfolds. Jule has her own ways of adapting to circumstances; she’s an orphan who “plays the game” to survive. What is real, and what is imagined?
- Click here to read more of Carol's commentary.
- Click here to read a review.
Click here for more books we're betting you'll love.
On Sale the Week of September 25th in Hardcover
September 26th
AFTER THE ECLIPSE: A Mother's Murder, a Daughter's Search by Sarah Perry (Memoir)
When Sarah Perry was 12, she saw a partial eclipse of the sun, an event she took as a sign of good fortune for her and her mother, Crystal. But that brief moment of darkness ultimately foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home, and the killer escaped unseen. It would take the police 12 years to find him, time in which Sarah grew into adulthood, struggling with abandonment, police interrogations, and the effort of rebuilding her life when so much had been lost. Through it all, she would dream of the eventual trial, a conviction --- all her questions finally answered. But after the trial, Sarah’s questions only grew.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544302655
THE BLIND by A.F. Brady (Psychological Thriller)
Sam James has spent years carefully crafting her reputation as the best psychologist at Typhlos, Manhattan's most challenging psychiatric institution. She believes if she can't save herself, she'll save someone else. It's this savior complex that serves her well in helping patients battle their inner demons, though it leads Sam down some dark paths and opens her eyes to her own mental turmoil. When Richard, a mysterious patient no other therapist wants to treat, is admitted to Typhlos, Sam is determined to unlock his secrets and his psyche. But she can't figure out why Richard appears to be so normal in a hospital filled with madness. As Sam gets pulled into Richard's twisted past, she can't help but analyze her own life, and what she discovers terrifies her.
Park Row Books | 9780778330875
A CASUALTY OF WAR: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd (Historical Mystery)
Though the Great War is nearing its end, the fighting rages on. While waiting for transport back to her post, Bess Crawford meets Captain Alan Travis from the island of Barbados. Later, when he’s brought into her forward aid station disoriented from a head wound, Bess is alarmed that he believes his distant English cousin, Lieutenant James Travis, shot him. Then the Captain is brought back to the aid station with a more severe wound, once more angrily denouncing the Lieutenant as a killer. But when it appears that James Travis couldn’t have shot him, the Captain’s sanity is questioned. Still, Bess wonders how such an experienced officer could be so wrong.
William Morrow | 9780062678782
DON'T LET GO by Harlan Coben (Thriller)
Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas hasn't been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks --- and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. For 15 years, Nap has been searching, both for Maura and for the real reason behind his brother's death. And now, it looks as though he may finally find what he's been looking for. When Maura's fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions --- mostly about Leo and Diana, whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.
Dutton | 9780525955115
FIVE-CARAT SOUL by James McBride (Fiction/Short Stories)
The stories in FIVE-CARAT SOUL --- none of them ever published before --- spring from the place where identity, humanity and history converge. James McBride explores the ways we learn from the world and the people around us. An antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War General Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens. Five strangers find themselves thrown together and face unexpected judgment. An American president draws inspiration from a conversation he overhears in a stable. And members of The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band recount stories from their own messy and hilarious lives.
Riverhead Books | 9780735216693
HANNA WHO FELL FROM THE SKY by Christopher Meades (Fiction)
Hanna has never been outside her secluded community of Clearhaven. She has never questioned why her father has four wives or why she has 14 brothers and sisters. And in only one week, on her 18th birthday, Hanna will follow tradition and become the fifth wife of a man more than twice her age. But just days before the wedding, Hanna meets an enigmatic stranger who challenges her to question her fate and to follow her own will. And when her mother reveals a secret --- one that could grant her the freedom she's known only in her dreams --- Hanna is forced to decide whether she was really meant for something greater than the claustrophobic world of Clearhaven.
Park Row Books | 9780778328735
IF MY FATHER LOVED ME by Rosie Thomas (Fiction)
Sadie is a mother, a good friend, and the robust survivor of a marriage she deliberately left behind. She has come to believe that she has everything she wants and deserves. But now her father is dying. The elusive man who spent his life creating exquisite perfumes for other women is slipping away from her, and Sadie must try to make her peace with him before it’s too late. As Sadie confronts the truth about her father, who often ignored her as he pursued his separate life, her relationship with her son Jack also appears to be breaking down. Then the arrival of an ephemeral woman from her father's past sets off a chain reaction of events that even Sadie cannot control.
The Overlook Press | 9781468302615
THE LAST CASTLE: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan (History)
Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York’s best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House --- the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore --- and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy.
Touchstone | 9781476794044
QUEENS OF THE CONQUEST: England's Medieval Queens, Book One by Alison Weir (History)
The lives of England’s medieval queens were packed with incident, but their stories have been largely obscured by centuries of myth and omission. Now Alison Weir restores these women to their rightful place in history. Spanning the years from the Norman conquest in 1066 to the dawn of a new era in 1154, when Henry II succeeded to the throne and Eleanor of Aquitaine, the first Plantagenet queen, was crowned, QUEENS OF THE CONQUEST brings to vivid life five women, including Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, the first Norman king; Matilda of Scotland, revered as “the common mother of all England”; and Empress Maud, England’s first female ruler, whose son King Henry II would go on to found the Plantagenet dynasty.
Ballantine Books | 9781101966662
SAVAGE COUNTRY by Robert Olmstead (Historical Fiction)
In September 1873, Elizabeth Coughlin, a widow bankrupted by her husband’s folly and death, embarks on a buffalo hunt with her estranged and mysterious brother-in-law, Michael. With no money, family, job or security, she hopes to salvage something of her former life and the lives of the hired men and their families who depend on her. Elizabeth and Michael plunge south across the aptly named Deadline demarcating Indian Territory from their home state of Kansas. Nothing could have prepared them for the dangers. They’re on borrowed time: the Comanche are in winter quarters, and the cruel work of slaughtering the buffalo is unraveling their souls. They must get back alive.
Algonquin Books | 9781616204129
SLEEPING BEAUTIES by Stephen King and Owen King (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent. And while they sleep they go to another place, a better place, where harmony prevails and conflict is rare. One woman, the mysterious “Eve Black,” is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Eve a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain? Abandoned and left to their increasingly primal urges, the men divide into warring factions. All turn to violence in a suddenly all-male world.
Scribner | 9781501163401
THE VISITORS by Catherine Burns (Psychological Thriller)
Marion Zetland lives with her domineering older brother, John, in a crumbling mansion on the edge of a northern seaside resort. A timid spinster in her 50s who still sleeps with teddy bears, Marion does her best to live by John’s rules, even if it means turning a blind eye to the noises she hears coming from behind the cellar door...and turning a blind eye to the women’s laundry in the hamper that isn’t hers. For years, she’s buried the signs of John’s devastating secret into the deep recesses of her mind --- until the day John is crippled by a heart attack, and Marion becomes the only one whose shoulders are fit to bear his secret. Forced to go down to the cellar and face what her brother has kept hidden, Marion discovers more about herself than she ever thought possible.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501164019
WHAT IS IT ALL BUT LUMINOUS: Notes from an Underground Man by Art Garfunkel (Memoir)
Art Garfunkel writes about his life before, during and after Simon & Garfunkel --- about their folk-rock music in the roiling age that embraced and was defined by their pathbreaking sound. He writes about growing up in the 1940s and '50s (the son of a traveling salesman); meeting Paul Simon in school; their going to a recording studio in Manhattan to make a demo of their song, "Hey Schoolgirl," (for $7!) and the actual record (with Paul's father on bass) going to #40 on the national charts, selling 150,000 copies; their becoming Simon & Garfunkel, taking the world by storm; his slow unfolding split with Paul and its aftermath; and so much more.
Knopf | 9780385352475
On Sale the Week of September 25th in Paperback
September 26th
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS: A Continental History, 1750-1804 by Alan Taylor (History)
The American Revolution is often portrayed as a high-minded, orderly event whose capstone, the Constitution, provided the ideal framework for a democratic, prosperous nation. In AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS, Alan Taylor gives us a different creation story. Rising out of the continental rivalries of European empires and their native allies, Taylor’s Revolution builds like a ground fire overspreading Britain’s mainland colonies. Conflict ignited on the frontier, where settlers clamored to push west into Indian lands against British restrictions, and in the seaboard cities, where commercial elites mobilized riots and boycotts to resist British tax policies.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393354768
THE BLACKBIRD SEASON by Kate Moretti (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
In a quiet Pennsylvania town, a thousand dead starlings fall onto a high school baseball field, unleashing a horrifying and unexpected chain of events that will rock the close-knit community. Beloved baseball coach and teacher Nate Winters and his wife, Alicia, are well-respected throughout town. That is, until one of the many reporters investigating the bizarre bird phenomenon catches Nate embracing a wayward student, Lucia Hamm, in front of a sleazy motel. Lucia claims that she and Nate are engaged in an affair, and when she suddenly disappears, the police only have one suspect: Nate. Nate’s coworker and sole supporter, Bridget Harris, is determined to prove his innocence.
Atria Books | 9781501118456
BLOOD AT THE ROOT: A Racial Cleansing in America by Patrick Phillips (History)
Forsyth County, Georgia, at the turn of the 20th century was home to a large African American community. Many black residents were poor sharecroppers, but others owned their own farms. But then in September 1912, three young black laborers were accused of raping and murdering a white girl. One man was dragged from a jail cell and lynched on the town square, two teenagers were hung after a one-day trial, and soon bands of white “night riders” launched a coordinated campaign of arson and terror. National Book Award finalist Patrick Phillips tells Forsyth’s tragic story in vivid detail and traces its long history of racial violence all the way back to antebellum Georgia.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393354737
CHRISTMAS CARAMEL MURDER: A Hannah Swensen Holiday Mystery with Recipes! by Joanne Fluke (Mystery)
The holidays have arrived, and Hannah and her good pal Lisa have agreed to provide all the goodies for the town’s annual production of “A Christmas Carol.” But before anyone can say “Bah, humbug!” a Santa-sized sackful of trouble ensues. Like the fact that Lisa’s husband will be playing Mr. Claus to his ex-girlfriend Phyllis Bates’ Mrs. Claus. Or that Phyllis is found dead in the snow, wearing a costume that the real Mrs. Claus would put on the naughty list. Soon after, the suspects pile up faster than snowdrifts in a blizzard, while a merry murderer remains on the loose. With clues even harder to find, it might take a visit from ghosts of Christmas past to wrap up this mystery in time for the holidays.
Kensington | 9781617732300
DIFFERENT CLASS by Joanne Harris (Psychological Thriller)
After 30 years at St. Oswald’s Grammar in North Yorkshire, England, Latin master Roy Straitley has seen all kinds of boys come and go. But every so often there’s a boy who doesn’t quite fit the mold. A troublemaker. A boy with darkness inside. With insolvency and academic failure looming, a new headmaster arrives at the venerable school, bringing with him new technology, sharp suits and even girls to the dusty corridors. But while Straitley does his sardonic best to resist these steps toward the future, a shadow from his past begins to stir again. A boy who still haunts Straitley’s dreams 20 years later. A boy capable of terrible things.
Touchstone | 9781501155529
ESCAPE CLAUSE: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford (Thriller)
The first storm comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large, and very rare, Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they’ve been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others --- as Virgil Flowers is about to find out. Then there’s the homefront. Virgil’s relationship with his girlfriend Frankie has been getting kind of serious, but when Frankie’s sister Sparkle moves in for the summer, the situation gets a lot more complicated.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780425276228
EVERFAIR by Nisi Shawl (Speculative Fiction/Alternate History)
What if the African natives developed steam power ahead of their colonial oppressors? What might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier? Fabian Socialists from Great Britain join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.
Tor Books | 9780765338068
FATAL by John Lescroart (Thriller)
Kate and her husband, Ron, attend a dinner party where they meet another couple, Peter and Jill. Kate and Peter only exchange a few pleasant words, but Kate is suddenly overcome with a burning desire for Peter. Her fixation on him results in an intense, passionate encounter between the two. Confident that her life can now go back to normal, Kate never considers that Peter may not be so willing to move on. Not long after their affair, a masked man barges into the café Kate is sitting in with her best friend, firing an assault weapon indiscriminately into the crowd. This tragedy is the first in a series of horrifying events that will show Kate just how grave the consequences of one mistake can be.
Pocket Books | 9781501174940
THE FIFTH PETAL: A Novel of Salem by Brunonia Barry (Mystery/Thriller)
When a teenage boy dies suspiciously on Halloween night, Salem's chief of police, John Rafferty, who is now married to gifted lace reader Towner Whitney, wonders if there is a connection between his death and Salem’s most notorious cold case --- a triple homicide dubbed "The Goddess Murders," in which three young women, all descended from accused Salem witches, were slashed on Halloween night in 1989. He finds unexpected help in Callie Cahill, the daughter of one of the victims newly returned to town. Neither believes that the main suspect, respected local historian Rose Whelan, is guilty of murder or witchcraft. But exonerating Rose might mean crossing paths with a dangerous force.
Broadway Books | 9781101905623
THE GIRL FROM VENICE by Martin Cruz Smith (Historical Thriller)
Venice, 1945. The war may be waning, but the city known as La Serenissima is still occupied and the people of Italy fear the power of the Third Reich. One night, under a canopy of stars, a fisherman named Cenzo comes across a young woman’s body floating in the lagoon and soon discovers that she is still alive and in trouble. Born to a wealthy Jewish family, Giulia is on the run from the Wehrmacht SS. Cenzo chooses to protect Giulia rather than hand her over to the Nazis. This act of kindness leads them into the world of Partisans, random executions, the arts of forgery and high explosives, Mussolini’s broken promises, the black market and gold, and, everywhere, the enigmatic maze of the Venice Lagoon.
Simon & Schuster | 9781439140246
I, ELIZA HAMILTON by Susan Holloway Scott (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
As the daughter of a respected general, Elizabeth Schuyler is accustomed to socializing with dignitaries and soldiers. But no visitor to her parents’ home has affected her so strongly as Alexander Hamilton, a charismatic, ambitious aide to George Washington. They marry quickly, and despite the tumult of the American Revolution, Eliza is confident in her brilliant husband and in her role as his helpmate. But it is in the aftermath of war, as Hamilton becomes one of the country’s most important figures, that she truly comes into her own.
Kensington | 9781496712523
LOVERS AND NEWCOMERS by Rosie Thomas (Fiction)
Miranda Meadowe lives a relatively solitary life in her rustic country home, but her world dramatically changes when she invites a group of her oldest friends to move in with her. In the beginning, the reunion is joyous. They laugh, dance, drink, behave badly and cling to the heritage they thought would be theirs forever: power, health, stability. But as the days pass, long-forgotten grudges resurface and new tensions emerge. And when an ancient burial site is discovered nearby, the outside world descends upon them. The isolation of the group is breached and the past revealed --- and they realize the future that beckons may be very different from the one they had imagined.
The Overlook Press | 9781468315561
THE MISTRESS by Danielle Steel (Romance)
Discovered on a freezing Moscow street by Russian billionaire Vladimir Stanislas, Natasha Leonova has lived for seven years under his protection, immersed in rarefied luxury, while he pursues his activities in a dark world that she guesses at but never sees. Theo Luca is the son of a brilliant, world famous and difficult artist, Lorenzo Luca, who left his wife and son with a fortune in artwork they refuse to sell. Lorenzo’s widow, Maylis, has transformed their home into a celebrated restaurant decorated with her late husband’s paintings. There, on a warm June evening, Theo first encounters Natasha, the most exquisite woman he has ever seen. And there, Vladimir lays eyes on Luca’s artwork. Two dangerous obsessions begin.
Dell | 9780425285381
MOST DANGEROUS PLACE: A Jack Swyteck Novel by James Grippando (Legal Thriller)
In MOST DANGEROUS PLACE, Jack Swyteck takes on a new client tied to his past. It begins at the airport, where Jack is waiting to meet his old high school buddy, Keith Ingraham, a high-powered banker based in Hong Kong, coming to Miami for his young daughter’s surgery. But their long-awaited reunion is abruptly derailed when the police arrest Keith’s wife, Isabelle, in the terminal, accusing her of conspiring to kill the man who raped her in college. Jack quickly agrees to represent Isa, but soon discovers that to see justice done, he must separate truth from lies --- an undertaking that proves more complicated than the seasoned attorney expects.
Harper | 9780062440587
THE SECOND SISTER by Claire Kendal (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
A decade ago, Ella Brooke’s older sister, Miranda, vanished without a trace. With every passing year, Ella has come to resemble more closely the sister she lost, and now she’s the same age Miranda was when she disappeared. Ella has never let go of her sister. She can still feel Miranda’s presence and hear her voice. She still talks to her. What holds Ella together is her love for her sister’s 10-year-old son and her work as a self-defense expert helping victims. Ella is certain that Miranda was taken and that one man is the key to her disappearance: Jason Thorne. Ignoring warnings from the police and the disapproval of her parents, she seeks Thorne out.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062297648
SEDUCED: A Hannah Smith Novel by Randy Wayne White (Thriller/Adventure)
Five hundred years ago, Spanish conquistadors planted the first orange seeds in Florida, but now the whole industry is in trouble. The trees are dying at the root, weakened by infestation and genetic manipulation, and the only solution might be somehow, somewhere, to find samples of the original root stock. No one is better equipped to traverse the swamps and murky backcountry of Florida than Hannah Smith, but once word of her quest leaks out, the trouble begins. “There are people who will kill to find a direct descendant of those first seeds,” a biologist warns her --- and it looks like his words may be all too prophetic.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780425279038
SONG OF THE LION: A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel by Anne Hillerman (Mystery)
When a car bomb kills a young man in the Shiprock High School parking lot, Officer Bernadette Manuelito discovers that the intended victim was a mediator for a multi-million-dollar development planned at the Grand Canyon. But what seems like an act of ecoterrorism turns out to be something far more nefarious and complex. Piecing together the clues, Bernadette and her husband, Sergeant Jim Chee, uncover a scheme to disrupt the negotiations and inflame tensions between the Hopi and Dine tribes. Retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn has seen just about everything in his long career. As the tribal police’s investigation unfolds, he begins to suspect that the bombing may be linked to a cold case he handled years ago.
Harper | 9780062391919
SUGAR PINE TRAIL: A Haven Point Novel by RaeAnne Thayne (Romance)
Paperback Original
Librarian Julia Winston is ready to ditch the quiet existence she's been living. She's made a list of new things to experience, but falling for Jamie Caine, her sexy military pilot neighbor, isn't one of them. However, when two young brothers wind up in Julia's care for the holidays, she'll take any help she can get --- even Jamie's. Happy to step in, Jamie reveals a side of himself that's much harder to resist. Not only is he fantastic with kids, he provides the strength Julia needs to tackle her list. She knows their temporary family can't last beyond the holidays, but the closer she gets to Jamie, the more she wonders if things could be this merry and bright forever.
HQN Books | 9780373803682
UNFORGIVABLE LOVE: A Retelling of Dangerous Liaisons by Sophfronia Scott (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Heiress Mae Malveaux made up her mind long ago that nobody would decide her fate. To have the pleasure she craves, control is paramount, especially control of the men Mae attracts. Valiant Jackson always gets what he wants --- and he’s wanted Mae for years. The door finally opens for him when Mae strikes a bargain: seduce her virginal young cousin, Cecily, who is engaged to Frank Washington. Frank values her innocence above all else. If successful, Val’s reward will be a night with Mae. But Val secretly seeks another prize. Elizabeth Townsend is fiercely loyal to her church and her civil rights attorney husband. Certainly there is something redeemable in Mr. Jackson. Little does she know that her worst mistake will be Val’s greatest triumph.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062655653
VICTORIA by Daisy Goodwin (Historical Fiction)
Early one morning, 18-year-old Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman can rule the greatest nation in the world. But Victoria has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be. Everyone keeps saying she is destined to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but she found him dull and priggish when they met three years ago. She is quite happy being queen with the help of her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, who may be old enough to be her father but is the first person to take her seriously.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250045478
WHEN ALL THE GIRLS HAVE GONE by Jayne Ann Krentz (Romantic Suspense)
When Charlotte Sawyer is unable to contact her stepsister, Jocelyn, to tell her that one of her closest friends was found dead, she discovers that Jocelyn has vanished. In a desperate effort to find her, Charlotte joins forces with Max Cutler, a struggling PI who recently moved to Seattle after his previous career as a criminal profiler went down in flames --- literally. After surviving a near-fatal attack, Charlotte and Max turn to Jocelyn’s closest friends, women in a Seattle-based online investment club, for answers. But what they find is chilling. When her uneasy alliance with Max turns into a full-blown affair, Charlotte has no choice but to trust him with her life.
Berkley | 9780515156355
WHEN WE RISE: My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones (Memoir)
Born in 1954, Cleve Jones was among the last generation of gay Americans who grew up wondering if there were others out there like himself. WHEN WE RISE is Jones' account of his remarkable life. He chronicles the heartbreak of losing countless friends to AIDS, which very nearly killed him, too; his co-founding of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation during the terrifying early years of the epidemic; his conception of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the largest community art project in history; the bewitching story of 1970s San Francisco and the magnetic spell it cast for thousands of young gay people and other misfits; and the stories of Cleve's passionate relationships with friends and lovers during an era defined by both unprecedented freedom and possibility, and prejudice and violence alike.
Hachette Books | 9780316315418
On Sale the Week of October 2nd in Hardcover
October 3rd
ADMISSIONS: Life as a Brain Surgeon by Henry Marsh (Memoir)
Henry Marsh has spent a lifetime operating on the surgical frontline. There have been exhilarating highs and devastating lows, but his love for the practice of neurosurgery has never wavered. Following the publication of his celebrated New York Times bestseller DO NO HARM, Marsh retired from his full-time job in England to work pro bono in Ukraine and Nepal. In ADMISSIONS, he describes the difficulties of working in these troubled, impoverished countries and the further insights it has given him into the practice of medicine. Marsh also faces up to the burden of responsibility that can come with trying to reduce human suffering.
Thomas Dunne Books | 9781250127266
ALI: A Life by Jonathan Eig (Biography)
Muhammad Ali was one of the 20th century’s greatest radicals and most compelling figures. At his funeral in 2016, eulogists said Ali had transcended race and united the country, but they got it wrong. Race was the theme of Ali’s life. He insisted that America come to grips with a black man who wasn’t afraid to speak out or break the rules. He didn’t overcome racism. He called it out. Ali went from being one of the most despised men in the country to one of the most beloved. But until now, he has never been the subject of a complete, unauthorized biography. Jonathan Eig breaks new ground and radically reshapes our understanding of the slippery figure who was Muhammad Ali.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544435247
THE ALLIES STRIKE BACK, 1941-1943: The War in the West, Volume 2 by James Holland (History)
By June 1941, Germany's war machine looked to be unstoppable. The Nazi blitzkrieg had taken Poland, France and Holland with shocking speed. The Luftwaffe had bombed London, while German U-boats wrought havoc on Allied shipping on the Atlantic. And yet, as James Holland shows at the start of THE ALLIES STRIKE BACK, 1941-1943 --- the second volume in his magisterial narrative of World War II in the West --- cracks were already appearing in Germany's apparent invincibility. This book offers fascinating new perspective on the critical middle years in World War II's western theatre, as the advantage between Axis and Allied forces swung back and forth on the Atlantic and eastern front, and in north Africa and Europe.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802125606
THE CHICAGO CUBS: Story of a Curse by Rich Cohen (Sports/Memoir)
When Rich Cohen was eight years old, his father took him to see a Cubs game. On the way out of the park, his father asked him to make a promise. "Promise me you will never be a Cubs fan. The Cubs do not win,” he explained, “and because of that, a Cubs fan will have a diminished life determined by low expectations. That team will screw up your life.” As a result, Cohen became not just a Cubs fan but one of the biggest Cubs fans in the world. In this book, he captures the story of the team, its players and crazy days.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374120924
THE CORE: Book Five of The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett (Fantasy/Adventure)
Arlen Bales became known as the Warded Man, tattooed head to toe with powerful magic symbols that enable him to fight demons in hand-to-hand combat. Jardir, armed with magically warded weapons, called himself the Deliverer, a figure prophesied to unite humanity and lead them to triumph in Sharak Ka --- the final war against demonkind. But in their efforts to bring the war to the demons, Arlen and Jardir have set something in motion that may prove the end of everything they hold dear --- a swarm. Now the war is at hand, and humanity cannot hope to win it unless Arlen and Jardir can bend a captured demon prince to their will and force the devious creature to lead them to the Core, where the Mother of Demons breeds an inexhaustible army.
Del Rey | 9780345531506
THE DARK LAKE by Sarah Bailey (Mystery)
The lead homicide investigator in a rural town, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is deeply unnerved when high school classmate Rosalind Ryan is found strangled. As much as Rosalind's life was a mystery to Gemma when they were students together, her death presents even more of a puzzle. What made Rosalind quit her teaching job in Sydney and return to her hometown? Why did she live in a small, run-down apartment when her father was one of the town's richest men? Rosalind's enigmas frustrate and obsess Gemma, who has her own dangerous secrets --- an affair with her colleague and past tragedies that may not stay in the past.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538759905
DUNBAR by Edward St. Aubyn (Fiction)
Henry Dunbar, the once all-powerful head of a global media corporation, is not having a good day. In his dotage he hands over care of the corporation to his two eldest daughters, Abby and Megan, but as relations sour he starts to doubt the wisdom of past decisions. Now imprisoned in Meadowmeade, an upscale sanatorium in rural England, with only a demented alcoholic comedian as company, Dunbar starts planning his escape. As he flees into the hills, his family is hot on his heels. But who will find him first --- his beloved youngest daughter, Florence, or the tigresses Abby and Megan, so keen to divest him of his estate?
Hogarth | 9781101904282
FEAR by Dirk Kurbjuweit (Psychological Thriller)
Randolph Tiefenthaler insists he had a normal childhood, though he grew up with a father who kept 30 loaded guns in the house. A modestly successful architect with a wonderful family and a beautiful home, he soon finds his life compromised when his father, a man Randolph loves yet has always feared, is imprisoned for murder. FEAR is the story of the twisted events leading up to his father’s incarceration.
Harper | 9780062678348
FOR THE WINNER: A Novel of Jason and the Argonauts by Emily Hauser (Historical Fiction)
When the king of Pagasae left his infant daughter on the slopes of a mountain to die, he believed he would never see her again. But Atalanta, against the will of the gods and the dictates of the Fates, survived --- and went on to bring to life one of the greatest legends of all of ancient Greece. Teaching herself to hunt and fight, Atalanta is determined to prove her worth to her father. Disguising herself as a man, she wins a place on the greatest voyage of that heroic age: the journey of Jason and the Argonauts to the very ends of the known world in search of the legendary Golden Fleece. But Atalanta is discovered, and abandoned in the mythical land of Colchis, where she is forced to make a choice that will determine her place in history.
Pegasus Books | 9781681775456
FRESH COMPLAINT: Stories by Jeffrey Eugenides (Fiction/Short Stories)
Ranging from the bitingly reproductive antics of “Baster” to the dreamy, moving account of a young traveler’s search for enlightenment in “Air Mail,” Jeffrey Eugenides’ first collection of short fiction presents characters in the midst of personal and national emergencies. We meet a failed poet who, envious of other people’s wealth during the real-estate bubble, becomes an embezzler; a clavichordist whose dreams of art founder under the obligations of marriage and fatherhood; and, in “Fresh Complaint,” a high school student whose wish to escape the strictures of her immigrant family lead her to a drastic decision that upends the life of a middle-aged British physicist.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374203061
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty (Sociology/Memoir)
Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for the dead. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is an immersive global journey that introduces compelling, powerful rituals almost entirely unknown in America. With boundless curiosity and gallows humor, Doughty vividly describes decomposed bodies and investigates the world’s funerary history. She contends that the American funeral industry sells a particular --- and, upon close inspection, peculiar --- set of “respectful” rites. She argues that our expensive, impersonal system fosters a corrosive fear of death that hinders our ability to cope and mourn.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393249897
GHOST ON THE CASE: A Bailey Ruth Ghost Novel by Carolyn Hart (Mystery)
Susan Gilbert receives a $100,000 ransom demand for her younger sibling. When the caller wants Susan to pay a visit to her wealthy boss and take the cash from his safe, Bailey Ruth follows Susan to the home. But she finds herself in a quandary, knowing that robbery is hardly a Heavenly pursuit. While Susan waits to hear back from the kidnappers, Bailey Ruth attempts to piece together how the criminals targeted Susan and how they know about her boss’s money. At a luncheon the previous week, Susan’s boss asked her to open the safe so all the attendees knew it was filled with cash. Could one of the rich man’s closest confidants be behind the abduction?
Berkley | 9780451488565
GOING INTO TOWN: A Love Letter to New York by Roz Chast (Graphic Memoir)
For native Brooklynite Roz Chast, adjusting to life in the suburbs (where people own trees!?) was surreal. But she recognized that for her kids, the reverse was true. On trips into town, they would marvel at the strange world of Manhattan: its gum-wad-dotted sidewalks, honey-combed streets, and "those West Side Story-things" (fire escapes). Their wonder inspired GOING INTO TOWN --- part playful guide, part New York stories, and part love letter to the city, told through Chast's laugh-out-loud, touching and true cartoons.
Bloomsbury USA | 9781620403211
HIDDEN SCARS: A Sam Blackman Mystery by Mark de Castrique (Mystery)
When Asheville, NC, private eyes Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson are asked by an 80-year-old client to investigate the suspicious death of her brother, they warn her there is little chance of success. Paul Weaver died nearly 70 years earlier. The only documentation she has is the sole surviving copy of a coroner's report stating his death was caused by an accidental fall while hiking. There's a red flag: local son Weaver knew every inch of the mountain trails. The returning World War II veteran had enrolled at Black Mountain College, which is currently being portrayed in a film being shot on the site of its former location. The plot is based on a book by a local author. The research behind both may provide a lead in the Weaver case.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464208942
I'M FINE...AND OTHER LIES by Whitney Cummings (Memoir)
After getting her start as a stand-up comic and then breaking out with her wildly successful CBS sitcom “2 Broke Girls” (she’s the creator, writer and executive producer), Whitney Cummings has seen a few things and is turning to the written word to tell us all the stuff she doesn’t say on stage. I’M FINE…AND OTHER LIES is, in Whitney’s words, like the internet if the internet were honest and didn’t hate women. With her signature ball-busting edge and self-deprecation, Whitney comes clean about what has shaped her into the trailblazing comic she is today.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735212602
THE LAST BALLAD by Wiley Cash (Fiction)
Twelve times a week, 28-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans. But the mill owners claim the union is nothing but a front for the Bolshevik menace sweeping across Europe. To maintain their control, the owners will use every means in their power to prevent workers from banding together. On the night of the county’s biggest rally, Ella May makes up her mind to join the movement --- a decision that will have lasting consequences for her children, her friends and her town.
William Morrow | 9780062313119
LOGICAL FAMILY: A Memoir by Armistead Maupin (Memoir)
Born in the mid-20th century and raised in the heart of conservative North Carolina, Armistead Maupin lost his virginity to another man "on the very spot where the first shots of the Civil War were fired." Realizing that the South was too small for him, this son of a traditional lawyer packed his earthly belongings into his Opel GT and took to the road in search of adventure. It was a journey that would lead him from a homoerotic Navy initiation ceremony in the jungles of Vietnam to that strangest of strange lands: San Francisco in the early 1970s. Reflecting on the profound impact those closest to him have had on his life, Maupin shares his candid search for his "logical family," the people he could call his own.
Harper | 9780062391223
MANHATTAN BEACH by Jennifer Egan (Historical Fiction)
Anna Kerrigan accompanies her father to visit Dexter Styles, a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. She is mesmerized by the sea beyond the house and by some charged mystery between the two men. Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that once belonged to men, now soldiers abroad. She becomes the first female diver, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. One evening at a nightclub, she meets Dexter Styles again, and begins to understand the complexity of her father’s life and the reasons he might have vanished.
Scribner | 9781476716732
MARTIN LUTHER: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World by Eric Metaxas (Biography)
On All Hallow’s Eve in 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther posted a document he hoped would spark an academic debate, but that instead ignited a conflagration that would forever destroy the world he knew. Five hundred years after Luther’s now famous Ninety-five Theses appeared, Eric Metaxas paints a startling portrait of the wild figure whose adamantine faith cracked the edifice of Western Christendom and dragged medieval Europe into the future. MARTIN LUTHER tells the searing tale of a humble man who, by bringing ugly truths to the highest seats of power, caused the explosion whose sound is still ringing in our ears.
Viking | 9781101980019
MERRY AND BRIGHT by Debbie Macomber (Romance)
Merry Knight is taking care of her family, baking cookies, decorating for the holidays, and hoping to stay out of the crosshairs of her stressed and by-the-book boss at the consulting firm where she temps. Her own social life is the last thing she has in mind, much less a man. Without her knowledge, Merry’s well-meaning mom and brother create an online dating profile for her --- minus her photo --- and the matches start rolling in. Soon Merry finds herself chatting with a charming stranger, a man with similar interests and an unmistakably kind soul. But meeting face-to-face is altogether different, and her special friend is the last person Merry expects --- or desires.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181221
THE NINE-TAILED FOX: A Sueño and Bascom Mystery Set in South Korea by Martin Limon (Historical Mystery)
Three American GIs have gone missing in different South Korean cities. Sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom, agents for the Army CID, link the disappearances to a woman locally rumored to be a gumiho, a legendary thousand-year-old nine-tailed fox disguised as a woman. George suspects that the woman is no mythical creature, but a criminal who’s good at covering her tracks. Meanwhile, George and Ernie are caught in a power struggle between two high-ranking women in the 8th Army. Scrambling to appease his boss and stay one step ahead of a psychotic mastermind, George realizes he will have to risk his life to discover the whereabouts of his fellow countrymen.
Soho Crime | 9781616958237
ORIGIN by Dan Brown (Thriller)
Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend the unveiling of a discovery that “will change the face of science forever.” The evening’s host is Edmond Kirsch, who is about to reveal an astonishing breakthrough that will answer two of the fundamental questions of human existence. But the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, and Kirsch’s precious discovery teeters on the brink of being lost forever. Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape Bilbao, accompanied by Ambra Vidal, the elegant museum director. Together they flee to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch’s secret.
Doubleday | 9780385514231
THE PRAGUE SONATA by Bradford Morrow (Fiction)
In the early days of the new millennium, pages of a worn and weathered original sonata manuscript --- the gift of a Czech immigrant living out her final days in Queens --- come into the hands of Meta Taverner, a young musicologist whose concert piano career was cut short by an injury. The gift comes with the request that Meta attempt to find the manuscript’s true owner --- a Prague friend the old woman has not heard from since the Second World War forced them apart --- and to make the three-part sonata whole again. Leaving New York behind for the land of Dvořák and Kafka, Meta sets out on an unforgettable search to locate the remaining movements of the sonata and uncover a story that has influenced the course of many lives.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802127150
REAL AMERICAN: A Memoir by Julie Lythcott-Haims (Memoir)
Bringing a poetic sensibility to her prose to stunning effect, Julie Lythcott-Haims briskly and stirringly evokes her personal battle with the low self-esteem that American racism routinely inflicts on people of color. The only child of a marriage between an African-American father and a white British mother, she shows indelibly how so-called "micro" aggressions in addition to blunt force insults can puncture a person's inner life with a thousand sharp cuts. REAL AMERICAN expresses also, through Lythcott-Haims’ path to self-acceptance, the healing power of community in overcoming the hurtful isolation of being incessantly considered "the other."
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250137746
THE RELIVE BOX AND OTHER STORIES by T.C. Boyle (Fiction/Short Stories)
In THE RELIVE BOX, T.C. Boyle's sharp wit and rich imagination combine with a penetrating social consciousness to produce raucous, poignant and expansive short stories defined by an inimitable voice. From the collection's title story, featuring a Halcom X1520 Relive Box that allows users to experience anew almost any moment from their past, to "The Five-Pound Burrito," the tale of a man aiming to build the biggest burrito in town, the 12 stories in this collection speak to the humor, the pathos and the struggle that is part of being human while relishing the whimsy of wordplay and the power of a story well told.
Ecco | 9780062673398
SEVEN SUSPECTS by Renee James (Mystery)
Bobbi Logan is a successful businesswoman and a celebrated hairdresser. She is a witty, articulate woman who has survived rape, gender transition, a murder investigation, and countless acts of bullying and bigotry to get to where she is --- and she's made enemies along the way. Now one of them is stalking her. With each passing day, the threats become more brazen, more violent and more personal. Bobbi accumulates a list of six suspects and hunts them down, one by one. But as she confronts those men who may want to do her harm, the number seven keeps haunting her --- there must be a seventh suspect. And when she finds him, Bobbi’s world implodes.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608092550
THE STOLEN MARRIAGE by Diane Chamberlain (Historical Fiction)
Pregnant, alone and riddled with guilt, 23-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly gives up her budding career as a nurse and ends her engagement to the love of her life. She turns to the baby’s father for help and agrees to marry him, moving to the small, rural town of Hickory, North Carolina. Tess’ new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who shows her no affection, and she quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out. When a sudden polio epidemic strikes Hickory, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle the truth behind her husband’s mysterious behavior and find the love --- and the life --- she was meant to have?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250087270
THE VINEYARD by Maria Duenas (Historical Fiction)
Mauro Larrea’s fortune, the result of years of hardship and toil, comes crashing down on the heels of a calamitous event. Swamped by debt and uncertainty, he gambles the last of his money in a daring play that wins him an abandoned house and a vineyard an ocean away. Mauro travels to Andalusia de Jerez in Spain with every intention of selling the property and returning to Mexico. That is, until he meets the unsettling Soledad Montalvo, the wife of a London wine merchant, who bursts into his life unannounced, determined to protect her family’s legacy. Before long, Larrea finds himself immersed in the rich culture of the sherry trade. As his feelings for Soledad ripen into a consuming passion, he seeks to restore the vineyard to its former glory.
Atria Books | 9781501124532
WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Essays)
“We were eight years in power” was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.” The book also examines the new voices, ideas and movements for justice that emerged over this period --- and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history.
One World | 9780399590566
WINTER SOLSTICE by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction)
It's been too long since the entire Quinn family has been able to celebrate the holidays under the same roof, but that's about to change. With Bart back safe and sound from Afghanistan, the Quinns are preparing for a holiday more joyous than any they've experienced in years. And Bart's safe return isn't the family's only good news. Kevin is enjoying married life with Isabelle; Patrick is getting back on his feet after paying his debt to society; Ava thinks she's finally found the love of her life; and Kelley is thrilled to see his family reunited at last. But it just wouldn't be a Quinn family gathering if things went smoothly.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316435451
THE WITCHES' TREE: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M. C. Beaton (Mystery)
Margaret Darby, an elderly spinster, has been murdered --- and the villagers are bewildered as to who would commit such a crime. Agatha Raisin rises to the occasion (a little glad for the excitement, to tell the truth, after a long run of lost cats and divorces on the books). But Sumpton Harcourt is a small and private village, she finds --- a place that poses more questions than answers. And when two more murders follow the first, Agatha begins to fear for her reputation --- and even her life. That the village has its own coven of witches certainly doesn't make her feel any better.
Minotaur Books | 9781250057464
WOLF'S REVENGE: A Leo Maxwell Mystery by Lachlan Smith (Mystery)
Attorney-detective Leo Maxwell seeks an exit strategy from his family’s deepening entanglement with a ruthless prison-based gang. Caught between the criminals and the FBI, Leo charts his own path in defending a young woman who was manipulated into brazenly murdering a member of the Aryan Brotherhood in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. When the consequences strike heartbreakingly close to home, Leo, his brother Teddy, and the rest of the family are forced into a winner-takes-all confrontation with men who don’t care how many innocents they harm in achieving their goals.
Mysterious Press | 9780802127075
THE YEAR OF THE PITCHER: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball's Golden Age by Sridhar Pappu (Sports/History)
In 1968, two remarkable pitchers would dominate the game as well as the broadsheets. One was black, the other white. Bob Gibson, together with the St. Louis Cardinals, embodied an entire generation's hope for integration at a heated moment in American history. Denny McLain, his adversary, was a crass self-promoter who eschewed the team charter and his Detroit Tigers teammates to zip cross-country in his own plane. For one season, the nation watched as these two men and their teams swept their respective league championships to meet at the World Series.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780547719276
On Sale the Week of October 2nd in Paperback
October 1st
LIGHTS OUT SUMMER: A Coleridge Taylor Mystery by Rich Zahradnik (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
In March 1977, ballistics link murders going back six months to the same Charter Arms Bulldog .44. A serial killer, Son of Sam, is on the loose. Constantly on the lookout for victims who need their stories told, Coleridge Taylor uncovers other killings being ignored because of the media circus. He goes after one, the story of a young black woman gunned down in her apartment building the same night Son of Sam struck elsewhere in Queens. Just as he's closing in on the killer and his scoop, the July 13-14 blackout sends New York into a 24-hour orgy of looting and destruction. In the midst of the chaos, a suspect in Taylor's story goes missing. Desperate, he races to a confrontation that will break the story --- or Taylor.
Camel Press | 9781603812139
October 2nd
BOLT ACTION REMEDY by J.J. Hensley (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Former Pittsburgh narcotics detective Trevor Galloway has been hired to look into the year-old homicide of a prominent businessman who was gunned down on his estate in Central Pennsylvania. When Galloway arrives, he determines that the murder could have been committed only by someone extremely skilled in two areas: skiing and shooting. He believes the assailant should not be too difficult to identify given the great amount of skill and athleticism needed to pull off the attack. When he discovers that the victim’s property is next door to a biathlon training camp, the situation becomes significantly more complicated.
Down & Out Books | 9781946502049
October 3rd
ABSOLUTELY ON MUSIC: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa written by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin (Music)
Haruki Murakami's passion for music runs deep. Before turning his hand to writing, he ran a jazz club in Tokyo, and the aesthetic and emotional power of music permeates every one of his much-loved books. Now, in ABSOLUTELY ON MUSIC, Murakami fulfills a personal dream, sitting down with his friend, acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa, to talk, over a period of two years, about their shared interest. Transcribed from lengthy conversations about the nature of music and writing, here they discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from record collecting to pop-up orchestras, and much more.
Vintage | 9780804173728
ALL THE UGLY AND WONDERFUL THINGS by Bryn Greenwood (Fiction)
As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star gazing causes an accident. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold. When tragedy rips Wavy's family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in, and what is beautiful to Wavy looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world.
A Thomas Dunne Book for St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250153968
EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE by Mindy Mejia (Psychological Thriller)
High school senior Hattie Hoffman has spent her whole life playing many parts: the good student, the good daughter, the good citizen. When she’s found brutally stabbed to death on the opening night of her high school play, the tragedy rips through the fabric of her small-town community. Local sheriff Del Goodman vows to find her killer, but trying to solve her murder yields more questions than answers. It seems that Hattie’s acting talents ran far beyond the stage. Told from three points of view --- Del, Hattie, and the new English teacher whose marriage is crumbling --- EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE weaves the story of Hattie’s last school year and the events that drew her ever closer to her death.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501123436
THE GENERAL VS. THE PRESIDENT: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War by H.W. Brands (History/Politics)
At the height of the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman committed a gaffe that sent shock waves around the world. When asked by a reporter about the possible use of atomic weapons in response to China's entry into the war, Truman replied testily, "The military commander in the field will have charge of the use of the weapons, as he always has." This suggested that General Douglas MacArthur, the willful, fearless and highly decorated commander of the American and U.N. forces, had his finger on the nuclear trigger. A correction quickly followed, but the damage was done. Two visions for America's path forward were clearly in opposition, and one man would have to make way.
Anchor | 9781101912171
HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado (Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
In HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. A wife refuses her husband’s entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store’s prom dresses. One woman’s surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in “Especially Heinous,” Machado reimagines every episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgängers, ghosts and girls-with-bells-for-eyes.
Graywolf Press | 9781555977887
THE LAST DAY OF EMILY LINDSEY by Nic Joseph (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Detective Steven Paul has had the same nightmare for as long as he can remember, a strange symbol figuring prominently into his terror. He decided long ago that the recurring dreams are nothing more than an unfortunate side effect of his often traumatic profession. Until, that is, he's assigned to the case of Emily Lindsey, the beautiful, elusive and controversial blogger found alone, who can't possibly know the symbol from his nightmares...unless she does.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492646532
LOST LUGGAGE by Wendall Thomas (Mystery/Humor)
Paperback Original
Days after the pet store owner next door to Redondo Travel is poisoned, travel agent Cyd Redondo wins a free safari. She and her recent fling, Roger Claymore, arrive in Africa --- luggage lost --- to find two of Cyd's elderly clients in a local jail. She manages to barter them out, only to discover smugglers have hidden $500,000 worth of endangered parrots, snakes, frogs and a lone Madagascan chameleon in the clients' outbound luggage. When Roger steals the bags --- is the U.S. Embassy in on the contraband ring? --- Cyd and the chameleon helicopter into the jungle to go after Roger on their own.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464208928
A LOWCOUNTRY HEART: Reflections on a Writing Life by Pat Conroy (Essays)
This new volume of Pat Conroy’s nonfiction brings together some of the most charming interviews, magazine articles, speeches and letters from his long literary career, many of them addressed directly to his readers with his habitual greeting, “Hey, out there.” Ranging across diverse subjects, such as favorite recent reads, the challenge of staying motivated to exercise, and processing the loss of dear friends, Conroy’s eminently memorable pieces offer a unique window into the life of a true titan of Southern writing.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9780385343534
LUCKY 666: The Impossible Mission That Changed the War in the Pacific by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (History)
From the authors of the New York Times bestselling THE HEART OF EVERYTHING THAT IS and HALSEY'S TYPHOON comes the dramatic, untold story of a daredevil bomber pilot and his misfit crew who fly their lone B-17 into the teeth of the Japanese Empire in 1943, engage in the longest dogfight in history, and change the momentum of the War in the Pacific --- but not without making the ultimate sacrifice.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476774862
THE MOTION OF PUPPETS by Keith Donohue (Dark Fantasy/Horror)
In the Old City of Québec, Kay Harper falls in love with a puppet in the window of the Quatre Mains, a toy shop that is never open. Late one night, she fears someone is following her home. Surprised to see that the lights of the toy shop are on and the door is open, she takes shelter inside. The next morning, her husband Theo wakes up to discover his wife is missing. Kay has been transformed into a puppet, and is now a prisoner of the back room of the Quatre Mains, trapped with an odd assemblage of puppets from all over the world who can only come alive between the hours of midnight and dawn. The only way she can return to the human world is if Theo can find her and recognize her in her new form.
Picador | 9781250141194
NO EASY TARGET by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
Raised off the grid in an abusive home, Margaret Douglas’ only escape was the nearby forest where she sought refuge. There, she discovered a strange gift: the ability to understand animals and to communicate with them. But her abilities have not gone unnoticed, and there are those who would use them for their own purposes. Determined not to be a pawn in anyone’s game, every time someone gets too close, Margaret uproots her life and outruns them. When CIA operative John Lassiter breaks into Margaret’s apartment, she vanishes again, but Lassiter has good reason to be persistent. As a CIA operative, he owes his life to his men, one of whom is being held captive by an unrelenting enemy --- an enemy who has set his sights on Margaret.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250075918
ODD CHILD OUT by Gilly Macmillan (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Best friends Noah Sadler and Abdi Mahad have always been inseparable. But when Noah is found floating unconscious in Bristol's Feeder Canal, Abdi won’t tell anyone what happened. Just back from a mandatory leave following his last case, Detective Jim Clemo is now assigned to look into this unfortunate accident. But tragedy strikes, and what looked like the simple case of a prank gone wrong soon ignites into a public battle. Noah is British. Abdi is a Somali refugee. And social tensions have been rising rapidly in Bristol. Against this background of fear and fury, two families fight for their sons and for the truth.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062476821
ORPHANS OF THE CARNIVAL by Carol Birch (Historical Fiction)
Pronounced by the most eminent physician of the day to be "a true hybrid wherein the nature of woman presides over that of the brute," Julia Pastrana stood apart from the other carnival acts. Beneath the flashy lights and thunderous applause lies a bright, compassionate young woman who only wants people to see beyond her hairy visage. Julia eventually meets Theodore Lent, a boyishly charming showman who catapults her onto the global stage. As they travel the world, the two fall into an easy intimacy, but the question of whether Theo truly cares for Julia or if his management is just a gentler form of exploitation lingers heavily with every kind word and soft embrace.
Anchor | 9781101973097
PARIS FOR ONE AND OTHER STORIES by Jojo Moyes (Romance/Short Stories)
Nell is 26 and has never been to Paris. She's never even been on a romantic weekend away --- to anywhere --- before. Traveling abroad isn't really her thing. But when Nell's boyfriend fails to show up for their mini-vacation, she has the opportunity to prove everyone --- including herself --- wrong. Alone in Paris, Nell finds a version of herself she never knew existed: independent and intrepid. Could this turn out to be the most adventurous weekend of her life? "Paris for One" is quintessential Jojo Moyes --- as are the other stories that round out the collection.
Penguin Books | 9780735222304
RECKLESS CREED: A Ryder Creed Novel by Alex Kava (Thriller)
In Chicago, a young man jumps from his 30th-story hotel room; along the Missouri River, a hunter and his son stumble upon a lake whose surface is littered with snow geese, all of them dead; and in southern Alabama, Ryder Creed and his search-and-rescue dog, Grace, find the body of a young woman who went missing in the Conecuh National Forest...and it appears she filled her pockets with rocks and walked into the river. Before long, Ryder and FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell will discover the ominous connection among these mysterious deaths. What they find may be the most prolific killer the United States has ever known.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399185465
RIGHT BEHIND YOU by Lisa Gardner (Thriller)
Eight years ago, Sharlah May Nash’s older brother beat their drunken father to death with a baseball bat in order to save both of their lives. Now 13 years old, Sharlah has finally moved on. About to be adopted by retired FBI profiler Pierce Quincy and his partner, Rainie Conner, Sharlah loves one thing best about her new family: They are all experts on monsters. Then the call comes in. A double murder at a local gas station, followed by reports of an armed suspect shooting his way through the wilds of Oregon. As Quincy and Rainie race to assist, they are forced to confront mounting evidence: The shooter may very well be Sharlah’s older brother, and it appears his killing spree has only just begun.
Dutton | 9781101984376
THE SLEEPWALKER by Chris Bohjalian (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Annalee Ahlberg sleepwalks at night, and her affliction manifests in ways both devastating and bizarre. A search party combs the woods, but there is little trace of Annalee and her family fears the worst. Her daughter Lianna leaves college to care for her father and younger sister. She finds herself uncontrollably drawn to Gavin Rikert, the hazel-eyed detective investigating the case, and the two become involved. But Gavin seems to know more about Lianna's mother than he should. As Lianna sifts through the life Annalee has left behind, she wonders if the man sleeping next to her could hold the key to her mother's mysterious disappearance.
Vintage | 9780804170994
STRONG COLD DEAD: A Caitlin Strong Novel by Jon Land (Thriller)
The terrorist organization ISIS is after a deadly toxin that could be the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. The same toxin holds the potential to eradicate cancer. There is a frantic race to see who can get to it first, even as Caitlin Strong begins to assemble the disparate pieces of a deadly puzzle. At the center of that puzzle is an Indian reservation where a vengeful tycoon is mining the toxin, disguising his effort as an oil-drilling operation. This is the same reservation where Caitlin’s great-great-grandfather, also a Texas Ranger, once waged a similar battle against the forces of John D. Rockefeller.
Forge Books | 9780765370297
THE TERRANAUTS by T.C. Boyle (Fiction)
It is 1994, and in the desert near Tillman, Arizona, a grand experiment involving the future of humanity is underway. As climate change threatens the earth, eight scientists dubbed the "Terranauts" have been selected to live under glass in E2, a prototype of a possible off-earth colony. Closely monitored by an all-seeing Mission Control, this New Eden is the brainchild of ecovisionary Jeremiah Reed, for whom the project is both an adventure in scientific discovery and a momentous publicity stunt. His young, strapping Terranauts must impress watchful visitors and a skeptical media curious to see if E2’s environment will somehow be compromised, forcing the Ecosphere’s seal to be broken --- and ending the mission in failure.
Ecco | 9780062349415
THRICE THE BRINDED CAT HATH MEW’D: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley (Historical Mystery)
Only too eager to run an errand for the vicar’s wife, 12-year-old Flavia de Luce hops on her trusty bicycle, Gladys, to deliver a message to a reclusive wood-carver. Finding the front door ajar, Flavia enters and stumbles upon the poor man’s body hanging upside down on the back of his bedroom door. The only living creature in the house is a feline that shows little interest in the disturbing scene. Curiosity may not kill this cat, but Flavia is energized at the prospect of a new investigation. However, what awaits Flavia will shake her to the very core.
Bantam | 9780345539977
VICTORIA: THE QUEEN: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird (Biography)
Drawing on sources that include revelations about Queen Victoria’s relationship with her servant, John Brown, Julia Baird brings vividly to life the fascinating story of a woman who struggled with so many of the things we do today: balancing work and family, raising children, navigating marital strife, losing parents, combating anxiety and self-doubt, finding an identity, searching for meaning. VICTORIA: THE QUEEN gives us the real woman behind the myth: a bold, glamorous, unbreakable queen --- a Victoria for our times, a Victoria who endured.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812982282
WINTER STORMS by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction)
For the Quinn family, things finally seem to be coming together. However, there are still a few dark clouds on the horizon in Kelley’s recent health scare, Jennifer’s addiction to drugs, and Ava’s inability to choose between two lovers. But if there’s one holiday that brings the family together, it’s Christmas. This year promises celebration in Kevin and Isabelle’s wedding at the inn, but a historic once-in-a-century blizzard bears down on Nantucket as the special day approaches, threatening to keep the Quinns away from the place and people they love the most.
Back Bay Books | 9780316261180
YOU WILL NOT HAVE MY HATE by Antoine Leiris (Memoir)
On November 13, 2015, Antoine Leiris’ wife, Hélène Muyal-Leiris, was killed by terrorists while attending a rock concert at the Bataclan Theater in Paris, in the deadliest attack on France since World War II. Three days later, Leiris wrote an open letter addressed directly to his wife’s killers, which he posted on Facebook: “For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom.” In his determination to honor the memory of his wife, Leiris became an international hero to everyone searching desperately for a way to deal with the horror of the Paris attacks and the grim shadow cast today by the threat of terrorism. Now he tells the full story of his grief and struggle.
Penguin Books | 9780735222151
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